Image via CrunchBaseI just read the headlines. I have not read the full length articles yet. But I must say I am very, very surprised. This was so unexpected, to me it was. Unless the split between the two cofounders was quite tilted, or if by now after having raised several rounds of money Naveen's percentage ownership in the company had become really low, or the guy has come up with the next big thing, I mean. I have thought of FourSquare as a company that could end up with an IPO.
Now let me go read. The guy himself has a blog post on the topic, I think. Let's hear straight from the horse's mouth. If I were him I'd have left my equity still in the company. Because that money is growing. I wonder what he did.
The Official Google Blog: App Inventor For Androidanyone—programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students—to create mobile applications for Android-powered devices. .... “I used to think that no one could program except CS people. Now, I've made dozens of applications for the Android phone!”
ComputerWorld: Google's App Inventor For Android Is A Game-ChangerApp Inventor has the potential to do for mobile app creation what VisiCalc did for computations -- move it out of the exclusive realm of specialists in glassed-in data centers (or, in the case of mobile apps, programmers who can use a conventional SDK) into the hands of power users as well as make it easier for IT departments to create corporate apps. .... a fair number of components available, ranging from text labels to motion sensors .... you can hook up your phone to your computer while using App Inventor in order to see your app in action. ..... App Inventor for Android is one of the smartest things Google could have done in its battle with Apple for the hearts and minds of smartphone power users. ..... friendly to non-coding power users.
ComputerWorld: Android App Inventor: Another Slap To Apple's Closed ModelGoogle's new App Inventor for Android might just be magical -- and maybe even a little revolutionary. ..... apps created with App Inventor won't even be published to the Android Market as of now. .... The satirical likening of Apple to a communist regime doesn't always seem so far-fetched. ..... While Apple has long bragged about the 47 bazillion apps in its App Store, analyses suggest the vast majority of them actually sit unused.
New York Times: Google’s Do-It-Yourself App Creation SoftwareGoogle is bringing Android software development to the masses. ..... Google App Inventor for Android (http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/), has been under development for a year .... as cellphones increasingly become the computers that people rely on most, users should be able to make applications themselves. .... he helped initiate M.I.T.’s OpenCourseWare program, which offers free online course materials used in teaching the university’s classes. ..... similar to snapping together Lego blocks ..... A student at the University of San Francisco, Mr. Abelson said, made a program that automatically replied to text messages, when he was driving. “Please don’t send me text messages,” it read. “I’m driving.”
This is not only the future of Android app creation, this is the future of programing itself. Computer programminglanguages have been on a one way ride to simplicity all these decades. This was bound to happen. Creating an app is now like putting together legos.
This is about thinking of software as utility, as commodity. You don't need a degree in electrical engineering to flip that switch, do you?
Used to be you needed to buy and upkeep servers. Then Amazon came to the rescue. This is a similar big shift in programming.
In The News
Techmeme Offers Tech News at Internet Speed New York Times Techmeme could become a model for other industries as a useful way to harness the increasingly unwieldy Web and arm readers who are preparing for business meetings or cocktail parties. ...... “Techmeme is our go-to primary source,” said Marshall Kirkpatrick, an editor and lead blogger at ReadWriteWeb, a tech blog. ..... Techmeme combines all three strategies, automatically searching the Web, employing editors and accepting tips from readers. .... its 260,000 readers, who check it three million times a month. .... Bijan Sabet, a venture capitalist at Spark Capital who reads Techmeme daily, also visits other aggregators, like Hacker News, because they have more diversity. Casualties Of War: OfferPal Downsizes As Facebook Chooses Competitor TechCrunch Offerpal is currently the largest offers and alt-pay provider world-wide. Offerpal’s business continues to grow and expand in numerous other areas including an exciting new agreement with Yahoo!, and on the mobile iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, with more to come. We are projecting continued strong growth going forward as well as sustained profitability. Man Claims Ownership of Facebook Wall Street Journal Waging war on Wordpress: Posterous prepares the switch Guardian
Image via CrunchBaseI just read the headlines. I have not read the full length articles yet. But I must say I am very, very surprised. This was so unexpected, to me it was. Unless the split between the two cofounders was quite tilted, or if by now after having raised several rounds of money Naveen's percentage ownership in the company had become really low, or the guy has come up with the next big thing, I mean. I have thought of FourSquare as a company that could end up with an IPO. 
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